


Puppies

by theramblinrose



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Caryl, F/M, Mandrea, both couples mentioned, it's something like a meet cute sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose
Summary: Caryl, Mandrea mentioned, One shot.  AU.  Dog dug under the fence for the good of his master.  Rated because of Dixons.
Relationships: Andrea/Merle Dixon, Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier
Kudos: 23





	Puppies

AN: This was a request that I got. 

It’s just a light little one shot for entertainment purposes.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! 

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Merle jerked open the door and blinked into the blindingly bright sunlight of the crisp autumn morning. The cool air hit him, and he wished he’d bothered to do more than pull on a pair of boxers.

Of course, the pounding on the door had made him think that, maybe, the police wanted something with him, but they were being nice enough not to force their way in. He hadn’t wanted to keep them waiting too long. As far as he knew, neither he nor his brother had done anything illegal in quite some time, but he was beyond being surprised by the way that things had a way of sometimes coming back on them.

Instead of the police, though, Merle found himself face to face with one of the neighbor women who lived in the trailer that faced theirs. 

She was a tiny little thing. There were two of them, and Daryl and Merle had jokingly split the two among them, each “taking” the one that most appealed to their fancy. As a source of entertainment, especially in the face of a lack of cable, they watched the two women and pretended that they knew them—in a biblical sense, more than anything. In the beginning, all their conversations and jokes had circled around simply banging the women—Merle’s favorite topic—but, over time, they’d developed into imaginary tales of actual relationships and domestic bliss that was closer to what Daryl enjoyed most in the fantasy realm.

In reality, they’d only exchanged a few greetings with the women and, once, Merle had helped them change the batteries in their smoke detector after the blonde—Andrea, and the one that he’d chosen—had come over begging a nine-volt battery if they happened to possess one. Neither Merle nor Daryl, though, had satisfied any of their carnal desires with the women, and they hadn’t even managed to ask them over for burgers, yet, so they certainly hadn’t delved into any of the domestic experiences that Daryl was always eager to talk about in his renditions of their make-believe lives.

The woman in front of Merle was Carol, Daryl’s chosen woman. She was thin, but well put together, overall. She had short gray hair that must have come in prematurely, because she didn’t seem any older than Daryl. Normally, she seemed quite warm and welcoming. She’d brought them cookies, once, and that had cemented Daryl’s choice—he was willing to fight for her, even if it was fantasy.

Right now, though, she looked just about ready to bite someone, and Merle considered calling for Daryl. If he wanted this one, he could have her.

Beside the woman, on a leash, was the brown junkyard dog that she and Andrea had adopted some short time ago from wandering around the grocery store as a stray. The dog was nothing more than a full-blooded mutt of absolutely no possibly distinguishable origin, but they treated her like she was the Queen of Sheba. She had a fancy ass collar, jangling tags, and her day-time chain-link pen had a house that was arguably nicer than either of their trailers and a pile of toys to rival the toy section of most big-box stores.

Merle figured that women were naturally inclined to want to baby things and, given that neither of them had any babies, they poured their affection into the dog. Of course, though he wasn’t too inclined to have a kid at the moment, Merle wouldn’t have been against practicing the baby-making process a little with the blonde.

He hadn’t worked up to that, though, because he was exactly sure what approach she would respond to best.

He stared at Carol. She glared back at him. The dog stared at him, too, with damn near a smile on her brown face.

“Can I—help you?” Merle asked finally.

“Lilly is pregnant,” Carol said.

Merle stared at her. 

She was Carol. The blonde was Andrea.

Merle flicked his eyes toward the brown dog of questionable parentage. 

“Lilly?” He asked, gesturing toward her.

Carol inclined her head just enough.

Merle laughed to himself.

“Regal damn name for—her. It weren’t me.” 

“It was that dog,” Carol said sharply. As if on command, and probably because he heard his name, Dog came trotting up.

Dog was a dog of a little less questionable parentage than his chosen mate. Dog’s parents had been a Belgian Malinois or a German Shepherd—or both. He’d been surrendered to the pound, and Daryl had brought him home like he was a blue-ribbon prize.

Dog looked like he grinned at Merle as he panted at him.

“You sly little asshole,” Merle muttered. “You weren’t shy at all about runnin’ your ass over there, were you?” He looked back at Carol. “Dog’s Daryl’s pet. Lemme just—go get him.” 

Carol nodded, standing her ground on the porch. Merle let the door close between them, keeping Dog from greeting his lady friend. He called to his brother and Daryl met him—fully dressed because he was less inclined than Merle to go about in his underwear.

“Your woman’s outside,” Merle muttered in a quiet voice. Daryl looked at him, brow-furrowed, but it didn’t take him long to catch on. Merle only needed to raise his eyebrows for Daryl to know exactly who he was talking about. “And your dog’s done gone an’ done what you ain’t had the balls to do yet, boy.” 

“Do what, Merle?” 

Merle laughed to himself.

“Seems he crossed the yard an’ sexually inflated her dog. I think she’s wantin’ to talk to you.” 

“Shit…” Daryl muttered. “What the hell’d you do?” He barked at the dog that seemed to smile up at him. Dog wagged his tail response. Daryl went to the door, pushed it open, and stepped out onto the porch. Carol and her dog backed up. Dog followed Daryl out and sat beside him, smiling up at him like a jackass. 

Merle stood and watched the interaction, just to the side of the door so he wasn’t too noticeable to those outside.

His brother was pink-faced. Merle didn’t believe for a moment that he was embarrassed for the furry asshole. Daryl was pink-faced because, more than anything, he probably envied the flea-bitten mutt and wished he had the balls to bravely trot his happy ass across the yard, make his intentions known, and top the woman that was standing in front of him. 

Merle swallowed back his own amusement at the image it created in his head. 

“Lilly’s pregnant,” Carol said. 

As if, in response, Lilly walked over and sniffed at Dog. The two of them, tails waving, circled one another. Carol tugged back on the leash, and Lilly looked at her before retreating back to her side. Dog followed her, unaware that he wasn’t welcome. Lilly seemed welcoming enough.

“Don’t know it was him,” Daryl said.

Carol frowned.

“Is that always a man’s defense mechanism?” Carol asked. 

“What?” 

“To shirk responsibility,” Carol said. “He’s always coming over to our yard. We found where he dug under the fence. We had to wait to get her fixed because the vet recommended it from the condition she’d been in when we found her. I took her today for her appointment and—she’s pregnant.”

Dog looked fond enough of his junkyard lady, and she wasn’t pushing him away or nipping him the way that bitches could do if they weren’t interested and weren’t trying to get knocked up. They seemed to genuinely like one another—her current condition aside.

“Alright,” Daryl ceded. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe he did knock her up.”

“He should’ve been fixed,” Carol said.

Dog didn’t seem to understand what the conversation was about.

“I didn’t have the heart to cut his damn nuts off,” Daryl said with a laugh. “Besides—if she’da been fixed, this woudln’ta happened anyway.” 

“She was in a fence,” Carol said. “This is hardly Lilly’s fault.” 

“Well it ain’t all Dog’s fault, neither!” Daryl said.

Merle knew his brother. Daryl had a certain temper—they both did. Sometimes he would launch into fighting about things that he didn’t really give two shits about just because something struck him wrong or he had some kind of proverbial bur under his nail.

Merle also knew that Daryl’s interest in the little woman on the porch ran pretty deep—and he wasn’t going to want to throw away any possibility at all with her just because his dog had busted a nut in hers.

Merle cleared his throat and pretended to walk by the door toward the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water that he didn’t want, and walked back across, dropping just out of view again of anyone but Daryl—and even then, his brother would have had to be looking for him to see him.

His interruption was enough to hit Daryl’s reset button and let him start using his brain again.

“I’m sorry,” Daryl said. 

The woman visibly softened and relaxed. It was clear she wasn’t used to having people apologize to her, Merle could also imagine that there were any number of reasons why she might get her gander up about feeling like everything wrong was being thrown back on her dog—and her, by extension.

“It’s OK,” Carol said. “I’m not mad. It’s just…Lilly’s going to have puppies, and…”

She stopped and Daryl nodded his head, chewing his lip. He raised his hand to his mouth and gnawed at his cuticle. 

“What’cha want me to—do?” He asked. “I mean—you want money or? I don’t know how to fix this. Can the vet get rid of ‘em?” 

“He can,” Carol said. “But—I can’t. I know it doesn’t make any sense, Daryl, but…I can’t do that.” 

Merle could tell that his brother nearly passed out just at knowing that Carol knew his name. This was the longest that the poor boy had talked to her since she’s moved in, and he would’ve done anything she wanted—all she had to do was name it in that sweet little slightly sad voice she was using at that moment.

“You wanna keep the puppies?” 

“I know nobody’s going to want them,” Carol said. “But—if we could get them their shots…maybe someone would want to give them a good home. We might keep one.”

“Yeah,” Daryl said. “Yeah—I mean—we might keep one. Dog—I bet he’d like a…family.” 

“You’ll help, then? With the expenses for the shots and…all?” 

She could have asked him for a kidney, and Merle was certain that his baby brother, at that moment, would have given it to her just to make her happy.

“Yeah,” he readily agreed. “With whatever—whatever you need. They—uh—seem to like that. Seem to like each other.” 

Carol smiled at the dogs. 

“They do,” she said. “Maybe you could—bring him over to visit some? Lilly might like that. A proper visit and not—digging under our fence.” 

“Yeah,” Daryl agreed. “Sure—I can do that. He—uh—he’d like that.” 

“You can have first pick of the puppies,” Carol said. 

“I’d like that,” Daryl said. 

“He needs to be fixed, Daryl. We don’t need another accident…”

“At least not on the canine level,” Merle muttered to himself, amused with the free entertainment provided to him. He didn’t know why in the hell there were actually people who paid for cable.

“Yeah,” Daryl agreed. “I’ll—see about it tomorrow.” 

“Vet’s open today,” Carol offered. “I know they’ve got some time because I had to cancel Lilly’s appointment.”

Daryl laughed to himself.

“You’re right,” he said. “Maybe—I’ma just…get my shoes an’ see…what they can do. What they tell me.” 

“I appreciate your help with everything. With Lilly…” 

“Hey—I wanna do it,” Daryl said. He cleared his throat. “I mean the puppies are Dog’s and…maybe I could—stop by after I see about Dog? See about fillin’ in that hole he dug so Lilly don’t get out?” 

Carol beamed. 

“I’d appreciate that,” she said. “I could—make you some lunch.”

“I like lunch,” Daryl said.

Merle cringed for his brother, but if Carol noticed that his little brother was an idiot, she didn’t seem to hold it against him. Instead, she laughed sincerely.

“What kind of sandwiches do you like?” She asked.

“Don’t matter to me,” Daryl said. “I’ll eat anything.” 

Merle invited himself into the conversation. He walked back in front of the door like he was in need of more water or something else from the kitchen. He stopped in front of the door.

“Couldn’t help but hearin’,” he said. “Long as—we’re talkin’ about food an’ all. Maybe Daryl could pick some shit up while he’s out. Hot dogs—for the occasion of this happy growin’ family of mutts. We could fire up the grill. Get your roommate somethin’ to eat, too. What’s her name—Andrea?” 

Carol smiled at him.

“We’d like that,” she said. “And I’m sure Andrea will like it, too. Well—come on, Lilly. Let’s go…tell Andrea not to make lunch.” 

Merle and Daryl both waved her goodbye and Merle opened the door and held it open so that Daryl and Dog could pass back inside. Merle couldn’t help but smirk at his brother.

“What?” Daryl asked.

“Get them beef hot dogs. Not the pork ones,” Merle said. “While you out sacrificin’ your boy’s manhood for your own shot at the woman next door.” 

“It ain’t like that, Merle,” Daryl said. “We can’t have him runnin’ around knockin’ up every bitch that goes into heat.” 

“No,” Merle agreed. “We can’t have that.” 

“Why you grinnin’ at my ass like that?” 

“I was just thinkin’—she didn’t have to even do more’n mention puppies to get your ass pussy whipped.” 

“Shut up, Merle,” Daryl said, but there wasn’t much bite behind it. He pushed past Merle, probably headed to his room to get his shoes and wallet.

“Daryl—you play your cards right, and she just might let you have a shot at makin’ puppies of your own one day,” Merle offered. He didn’t pay any attention to what Daryl yelled back at him, knowing it was little more than a defense mechanism. He laughed to himself and dropped a hand to pet Dog on the head. “You’re a good boy, you furry asshole. Makin’ the ultimate sacrifice today. Givin’ yours up so your master gets a chance to finally use his…there ain’t no animal no more damn loyal than that. Don’t worry—I’ll save your ass a hot dog.”


End file.
